Saturday, 12 March 2016

Saturday 12th March saw our fourth launch from the Forest of Dean. Thanks to all those who helped track, including radio amateurs from over the water in Holland, Belgium, France, Ireland and Isle of Man!

As you know we are "hobby HABers" - a phrase I just completely made up for amateur high altitude balloonists - and because of this our high altitude projects were slightly placed on the back burner for 2015. Usually this is due to general life getting in the way, the price of helium and being busy with the day jobs.

This time round however, it was Mark's day job at BBC Wales that helped us fulfil an aspiration we've had for quite some time - a launch using a 360 degree camera. This exciting new way of broadcasting is still very much in its infancy and the BBC are working to be forerunners in this area. A recent example, a tour of CERN, can be seen on BBC Click. Currently 360 degree videos are best viewed either on computers using the Chrome browser, or on the YouTube app on your mobile device.

We've been planning a balloon flight around this theme for quite sometime but hadn't quite been able to put anything into practice. So late last year when Mark's department at BBC Wales Technology purchased a 360 degree GoPro rig, he was first in line trying to borrow it. Mark successfully negotiated with the BBC Wales Innovation Lounge to form a mini project to launch a HAB testing the 360 camera rig in near space.

So, before anyone could change their mind about launching a precious new piece of equipment into the stratosphere, we leapt into action and volunteered our spare time this weekend to conduct the launch.

We are currently working to stitch all the feeds together and along with the BBC who will also work their magic, we hope to share some footage with you soon.

P.S. We are happy to confirm the rig and all GoPros are healthy and doing well following today's excursion.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

So this year has been a very busy year for us, however unfortunately for this blog, not for our High Altitude Balloon activities - here’s an update…!

Following our Santa Sleigh Test launch at the end of 2013 and the fantastic response to the subsequent video, we knew that interest in High Altitude Balloon experiments was still as great as ever. We made two presentations at the beginning of this year – one to Worcester Radio Amateurs Association and the other to students at Highgate School in London. Both were fantastic audiences and we were thrilled to be asked. Hopefully we have inspired some people to become interested in the electronics and science behind the hobby!

However this is where a lot of other things took over most of the HAB activities. In between holidays to Australia and Florence, I have progressed to two new jobs and have spent some time working on UKHASnet nodes and a Raspberry Pi IP CCTV Camera. Not forgetting weekends at Glastonbury Festival, the UKHAS Conference and EMF Camp!

This year has seen some fantastic launches from the other members of the HAB community. One that requires a special mention is the B-64 flight from Leo Bodnar which was launched on the 12th July this year and is STILL FLYING now! It has circumnavigated the globe many times and has even had a detour to the North Pole. It is a fantastic achievement and with a flight time record that keeps on getting longer, I think this is going to be a hard one to beat.

So what next? Well, in between the above, we have managed to build, design and test STRATODEAN Four. It’s taken many weeks of work to get to where we are, however, the mission is still under wraps as we hope it will be a ‘first’ of some kind, but that’s all we can say at the moment - Exciting! I guess its stealthy development has also been a factor in the lack of updates! However, all will be revealed as soon as we launch in the coming weeks. Assuming the weather is good, fingers crossed for January!

Sunday, 12 January 2014

We were truly blown away with the positive response and media interest that our Santa Sleigh Test video gained. It all happened as a bit of a whirlwind, from turning up on the BBC One O'Clock News then again on ITV's evening news, to an appearance in the Daily Mail, Metro and Daily Telegraph newspapers and their respective websites. That was just the UK, so far we've also found coverage on websites in Canada, USA, Mexico, France, Germany, Netherlands, India, Venezuela and Australia. You can find one of our personal favourites here, with the bemused presenter slightly struggling with our name. Unbeknownst to us, we've also gone from a two person team to a full on research institution. Crikey.

Artist's impression while

we were in the planning stages.

Having a trial run, trying to see
what the footage could look like!

It's all coming together.

What was great was how kind everyone was about the video, taking it in the manner it was intended - as a bit of festive fun. Finally, thank you to all those who shared in our excitement by getting in touch via email and social media and their positive response.

Getting setup for launch.

As this launch was a bit different to all of our others, we thought we'd create a 'Making Of' video, to explain how we did it and cover the real launch itself.

Santa and Rudolph's journey.

Plans for 2014

We've got a few potential projects in the pipeline and are busy following up on these, hopefully they'll lead to a productive and fun-filled beginning to 2014! One initial thing on the to do list is a launch with a dedicated 'Balloon Cam' to try and capture how the balloon changes through the flight - from launch to burst. Watch this space for news on STRATODEAN Four!

Saturday, 30 November 2013

Final preparations are underway and we are all systems go, ready for our STRATODEAN Three launch at approximately 10:00am tomorrow. Please see here for radio tracking information - if you just want to follow it on a map please see here! You may have noticed that this latest launch has a distinctly festive theme with a few famous faces on board. Therefore we really appreciate all your tracking help, fingers crossed for a successful flight and retrieval! Don't worry - Rudolph is getting an early night.
The wearing of Christmas jumpers whilst tracking STRATODEAN Three, aka Santa Sleigh Test, aka STRATOSanta, is fully encouraged.

Monday, 25 November 2013

OK so the first planned date of this launch didn't go well after a mix up with the CAA and our approval for launch. This was certainly disappointing, however truth be told we were a little short on time to put all the finishing touches to the payload - so this could be a blessing in disguise. We used the time this weekend instead to make improvements! We have also made the brave decision to tell you all about it before we launch! :)

So it's November 25th and with a month to go, Santa and Rudolf have just been finishing off the modifications to their 2013 sleigh. Like all good engineers, Santa has opted to test the new changes before rolling it out into production and he has come to STRATODEAN for help! (It's been a very well kept secret that we provide technical facilities to all our famous mythical friends. The Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny are already well established customers.)

He gave us a clear project remit - for us to take him up and down on our payload to allow him to test the new handling abilities of his sleigh. Apparently the cost of reindeer propulsion (magic flying dust) has skyrocketed in the last few years and he can only justify the once a year purchase for Christmas due to Mrs Clauses' bingo habit and the increasing Elf wages. Furthermore, for this test he can only bring Rudolf as the other reindeer are getting on a bit and they need to save their knees.

We drew up a plan -

Who else has a whiteboard in their dining room? :p

So the plan is simple, get Santa and Rudolf to the stratosphere, let them test their 2013 sleigh modifications, record the test and finally ensuring they get home safely as they have a job to do in a month - no pressure then!